About

Hi, I'm Jo. The little critter in the picture is my MS MonSter. It arrived in my life about 3 years ago and turned my world upside down. It destroyed my career, bashed me round the head, periodically set my legs in concrete and generally disrupts my day with all sorts of mischief. Its favourite trick is to either hang on my leg or stab me in the shin. I can’t fight it off so I am learning to live with it. We go everywhere together and have a fairly unpleasant ‘hate hate’ relationship!

Having spent the last 3 years under the care of an excellent neurologist and team of nurses, I am starting to establish my ‘new normal’ and finding ways to deal with this irritating, horrible and currently incurable disease. I have been on a drip-fed drug therapy every 4 weeks for over 2 years now which is helping to reduce the MonSter’s mischievous ways to something more manageable.

I am now in a place where I can start to rebuild my life, with my MonSter in tow. I’m not sure where this new path will take me but I am optimistic and I remain hopeful that one day, someone will wave the magic wand that makes my little MonSter disappear from my life completely.

Event details

An epic hike with my MS MonSter

On June 10th 2017, I am going to embark on an epic hike along the The Ridgeway National Trail. That’s 87 miles in 7 consecutive days. Which is about 12 and a half miles a day. That’s almost a half marathon every day for a week. For some, this might sound like a walk in the park. But when you have an MS MonSter in tow, trust me, this is not going to be easy! I will also horse-ride a short section when I go past my local branch of the RDA. They are based on The Ridgeway so it would be rude not to!

My main symptoms manifest in my legs and are exacerbated by exercise, particularly walking long distances. That and chronic fatigue. Sometimes I can’t walk anywhere at all! However, I am lucky that when I am well, I can still walk some distance but I am also aware that this may not always be the case. I have always wanted to walk The Ridgeway so I’d better get on with it!

I have received a huge amount of life changing support from MS Society and the RDA over the last 12 months and they are my chosen charities. All donations will be split equally between MS Society Research Department and the Lambourn branch of the RDA.

Thankyou for reading my story x

Event date

10-June-2017 09:00
-
17-June-2017 17:00

Event type

Running / Walking

Event is completed

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Donations

Unbelievable! Fantastic! You're a STAR!

Donation by David Bruceon 20-06-2017

£1,000.00
£0.00 gift aid

Well done, Jo! That is an a amazing accomplishment. Your positive attitude and dedicated training has paid off.
We are looking forward to hearing about your next challenge...
Love,
James and Becca xxxx